Place of design

Your website has a goal – to get the user to do something. That something could be to pick up the phone, to buy something, to register for a newsletter

We are going to have an in-depth look at the factors causing a low conversion. These may be blended – no real individual reason, but a blend of different reasons. It is worth both yourself auditing your own site, and having others audit your site for you against the following criteria. You need broad shoulders – be prepared to accept what others say, and understand that your view is possibly a little polarised

Specifying an e-commerce site can be a bit daunting, especially when you feel like you are aiming into a void. Before you even think about specifications there are a few things to take onboard

Comparison to real bricks and mortar stores
There are a lot of comparisons between high street retailing and e-commerce. But some things are not given. Something’s that seem totally logical in a real shop seem numbingly illogical in an e-commerce store. For this reason, discussing your needs with a designer at the preliminary stages is a very good idea, helping you find your boundaries a lot faster

A microsite (or micro site) is a small website that has its own domain and hence its own URL. The purpose is for pinpoint marketing. Regardless of the marketing for the main parent site, marketing, SEO and measurement for the microsite is independent. The content of a microsite ought to be unique – both in terms of the main site it directs traffic too, and other websites. Microsites are uses to focus attention on a specific product or service; aimed at a specific group of users

This is the first of a series of articles on SEO and conversion for e-commerce sites. This article introduces the very basics of e-commerce SEO and conversion, other articles will cover the details

Get this one in your head, it is the mantra for e-commerce:
Turnover = (average order value x conversion x number of visitors) – refunds

Merlins Wakefield is a bricks and mortar magic shop. They had a online store that was under-performing, and needed some web magic (couldn’t resist, sorry).  We were asked to provide a user-oriented site, with a community element.  The owners wanted a site they could be in control of, and update and generate new content themselves

This is a website for a wedding and portrait photographer.  We incorporated a secure contact form (PHP) and a slide show on the front page, which the client can update themselves.  Another part of the build was letting the portfolio be really easy for the client to update

Working with the client
We feel part of web design is working with and listening to a client to understand their needs.  In this build, it became apparent the client was pretty OK with FTP, and wanted to be able to update the site herself.  We designed aspects of the site to make this really easy, all the way down to the point of supplying specifically modified slide show template files for Photoshop